


Inkwell Bendy

by StarStorm21



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 04:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11936130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStorm21/pseuds/StarStorm21
Summary: Getting trapped in a studio that's falling apart, drenched in ink, and attacked by monsters is not a fun experience, but having a little friend in your pocket helps.





	1. Chapter 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> This started out a a cute little AU I made a while ago on my tumblr and now it's ballooned into this mess. Decided to post it here while I wait for Chapter 3 to come out.

“Ah there it is.”

Henry reached up to grab the inkwell from the shelf. Once he had that he’d have all the items to get that dam machine working and finally get some answers to what was going on in this place. Unfortunately, Henry didn’t realize that the shelf was so old it was being held up by little more than a few splinters and luck. As soon as his fingers brushed the inkwell the whole thing came crashing down. The inkwell hit the ground with a thunk and the pen inside flew off.

However, the pen wasn’t the only thing inside that went flying. Henry stared as something with much more form than just ink was flung across the floor and land with a grown. He then watched as the something picked itself up and quickly looked around.

Henry’s mouth dropped open in shock, immediately recognizing what it was. It was kind of impossible not to recognize what it was even if he hadn’t spent years of his life drawing it, the whole studio was plastered in images of the little black and white devil before him. Even though he was no more than three inches tall it was undoubtedly Bendy that Henry was looking at, a full 3 dimensional living Bendy.

“That’s impossible…”

At the voice Bendy went stiff. Slowly he looked behind him and up at Henry with large scared eyes. Henry found this odd. Bendy never acted so timid and skittish in his cartoons. In fact he’d always been confident and mischievous, playing pranks and causing problems for the other characters. Those terrified eyes did not belong on that face.

“Hey it’s ok; I’m not going to hurt you.”

Bendy blinked the fear giving away slightly to confusion. A black square appeared over Bendy’s head with white designs in the corners and white text in the middle that read. “Who are you?”

“Uh… Henry.”

Bendy’s eyes grew larger as he started to tremble. The square changed to read, “You’re Henry?” It then changed again to read, “Oh no, I can’t let Joey see me with you. He’ll be so mad.” The square then started changing too fast for Henry to read before displaying nothing but static. That wasn’t the worst of it as it appeared Bendy had started melting and collapse into an ink puddle.

Henry frowned not sure what to do to help a 3D cartoon who he guessed was having a panic attack. Eventually he decided to treat it like anyone else having a panic attack.

“Bendy,” he said in a calm voice, “Bendy look at me.”

Bendy did as instructed and looked back at Henry, the square above him vanishing into thin air. Assuming that meant Bendy had stopped talking and was focused on him Henry opened his mouth again.

“Ok now take a big breath in.”

He watched as the little devil’s chest expanded.

“Good now let it out slowly.”

Bendy did so and Henry instructed him through several more calming breaths until he was fully solidified into his original form.

“Are you better now?”

Bendy hesitated a beat before nodding.

“That’s good. Now don’t worry Joey won’t see you with me. He’s not here right now. You’re not going to get into any trouble.”

Bendy seemed to relax a bit at this information.

“Now I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in here. You can help me if you want but if you don’t that’s ok too.”

Bendy put his fist to where his chin would be in the typical thinking pose. Words on the black square appeared and read. “Will you put me back in the inkwell?”

Henry looked to the inkwell knocked over on the floor. “Only if you want me too.”

The square quickly morphed into a large exclamation point and he shook his head franticly, hands up in defense.

“Whoa whoa. Ok I won’t put you in there. I promise.”

Bendy calmed down and looked to Henry. He seemed to believe him at least as the exclamation point turned back into the black square. “Ok I’ll help. Just no inkwell.”

“No inkwell.” Henry set a hand down next to Bendy for him to climb on then placed him in his shirt pocket. “You ok in there?”

Bendy poked his head out and nodded.

“Good.” He then turned to pick up the pen and inkwell. “Now just got to put this in that pedestal room and maybe I’ll get some answers.”


	2. Chapter 1.2

As they made their way to the pedestal room Henry and Bendy did their best to tell each other what they knew. Apparently, Bendy had been trapped in that inkwell for a long time so he wasn’t able to tell Henry much. Most of what he managed to tell was that Joey had started to get angrier and short tempered after Henry had left and his cartoons had started to become a way to vent his frustrations. Bendy didn’t go into much detail but Henry had a feeling the making of those cartoons were not happy memories for Bendy. Henry found this information worrisome, apparently that fight he’d had with Joey had affected him more than he thought.

Henry told Bendy everything he’d done after coming to the studio, from the letter from Joey to finding Bendy in the inkwell. Of course he omitted the part about finding the life sized corpse of Boris strapped to a table with his chest ripped open. He didn’t think Bendy needed to know about that. 

Bendy seemed confused by the letter. Apparently, Joey had a lot of bad things to say about Henry for a long time. A friendly letter didn’t seem like something he’d do. That did not reassure Henry in the least.

Suddenly he realized how close they were coming to the pedestal room as well as a certain other room he did not want Bendy to see. He quickly made a sharp turn down the hall, making it impossible for Bendy to see what was in the other direction. A question mark appeared above Bendy’s head which Henry returned with a soft smile.

“Trust me you don’t want to see what’s down there.”

Bendy gave him a questioning look but the question mark did go away.

Once in the pedestal room Henry placed the inkwell on the last empty pedestal and a sudden wave of unease swept through them. Henry turned to the lever and noticed the flashing “Ink pressure low” sign.

“Looks like we’re going to have to fix the ink pressure, and I know where we need to go to do that.”

Bendy didn’t seem thrilled but nodded.

After shielding Bendy from the room with Boris again Henry made his way to the old projector room. He then made his way to the back corner where a button labeled “Ink Pressure” was located. Taking a breath, Henry pushed the button. At first nothing seemed to happen until suddenly the projector turned on and started playing one of the old cartoons.

Henry quickly noticed that it was one that was made a short time after he’d left the studio as he’d never seen it before. It started out normal enough, with Bendy walking with a picnic basket and being tripped by a skeleton. The typical slapstick fight with Boris followed only for Boris to take a very threatening stance and growl at Bendy, causing the small demon to run in fear. That was not normal, Bendy wasn’t supposed to be afraid of Boris. Henry watched Bendy continue running around until running into another skeleton which frightened him even more. Finally Bendy ran up to a large rock and braced himself against it to catch his breath when a large human shaped shadow fell over him. Bendy fearfully turned to the shadow and upon seeing who it was forced a rather strained smile before the video cut out.

Henry felt a shaking in his pocket and looked down to see Bendy curled up looking rather shaken. After seeing that cartoon Henry wondered if that really was out of character for the toon. If more of the shorts were like this after he left than no wonder Bendy was so scared.

Henry placed a hand over his pocket and gently patted Bendy through the fabric.

“Hey it’s ok. It’s over, I promise nothing’s going to hurt you.”

Bendy stopped shaking and looked up at Henry. Henry smiled down at him and Bendy relaxed.

“Come on, hopefully once we get this ink machine running we’ll get some answers and get out of here.”

Bendy nodded and Henry headed in the direction of the pedestal room again.

Once there he crossed the room and took a hold of the comically large switch. He took a quick glance down at Bendy who was looking a bit worried.

“Hey everything ok there?”

Bendy looked from the switch to Henry then back to the switch. He then got a determined look and nodded.

“Ok then, here we go.”

Henry pulled the switch down and the sounds of machine parts and ink flowing filled the studio. Henry covered his ears at the sudden noise. If this was how loud it was all the time no wonder Wally seemed so angry about it in that recording. He turned and noticed that all the items he’d placed on the pedestals were gone. He silently thanked whatever god there was that he’d found Bendy in that inkwell before he’d placed it there. He exited the room and made his way down to the ink machine, all the while feeling more and more uneasy.

He turned the last corner that lead to the machine and noticed that the doorway was boarded up. That was strange. It wasn’t like that before. Who’d done this?

Henry took a step forward to investigate only for the lights to suddenly shutter and a large misshapen mass of ink appeared in front of them. Henry lept back just in time as the ink monster lunged at them through the gap in the wood planks. The lights flickered revealing the manically grinning face that was all too familiar.

Henry looked down at the smaller Bendy in his pocket who was staring at his giant warped double with utter horror. That was it. Answers or no answers he needed to get Bendy out of here fast. Turning on his heal he darted as fast as he could back down the hall to the exit only mildly aware of the ink pouring from the ceiling and flooding the studio.

He darted down the last hallway and could have cried in relief at seeing the exit door. Without thinking twice he ran for it in a dead sprint. He’d just brushed the doorknob when he heard the sound of wood creaking and then cracking and the next thing he knew he was falling. He noticed Bendy fly out of his pocket and only managed to grab him before he hit the floor with a thud.


	3. Chapter 2.1

Henry opened his eyes with a groan and looked up the hole he’d fallen down. No wonder his back hurt so much, he’d fallen at least a story if not two. Great, he was going to be feeling sore for days. Suddenly remembering what had happened to have him wind up in this situation he quickly looked to his hands that were gripping something close to his chest. Opening them up he was relieved to see that Bendy was unharmed. Curled into a ball and shaking uncontrollably but unharmed.

“Hey there buddy, you’re ok. My chest is a pretty soft thing to fall on.”

Bendy slowly opened his eyes and looked to Henry. His shakes subsided as he uncurled and looked around at their surroundings.

The black box appeared above Bendy’s head and read, “Where are we?”

Henry sat up, rubbing at his back. “The basement, I think.”

Bendy continued to look around until his eyes landed on one wall. Smeared across it in black ink were large letters that read “The creator lied to us.”

Bendy turned to Henry with a worried expression. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know but I don’t think we should wait around for whoever wrote it to show up.” Henry went over to a different wall and grabbed the fire ax that was sitting there. “This will come in handy if we run into another thing like we did upstairs.”

At the mention of his monstrous other self, Bendy stiffened. “That thing was me.”

“No it wasn’t.”

“But you saw his face. That was my face. That was me.”

The words on the little box started to run together and Henry realized what was happening. He had to do something before the toon broke down into another panic attack.

“Bendy, listen to me. Neither of us may know what’s going on here but there’s one thing I do know. That was not you. Having your face does not make that thing you. That thing tried to attack us, would you have done that?”

The box remained blank for a long moment before Bendy shook his head. “No, of course not.”

Henry brushed a thumb over Bendy’s head. “See that means it wasn’t you. Now we are going to get out of here and leave that thing far behind us. Ok?”

“Ok.”

Henry placed Bendy back in his pocket and started heading down the hall, using the ax to cut away fallen boards as they went. Eventually they reached a room that made Henry stop in his tracks and Bendy’s eyes go wide.

The room was even more dimly lit then the rest of the studio with only a few candles lighting the room. However, that little bit a light was still enough to see the coffins propped up against the far wall. Henry tried not to look at them although the rest of the room wasn’t much better. Dark shadows seemed to draw his attention to the large circled pentagram marked with other symbols on the floor, which looked far too much like a demonic summoning circle.

The same uneasy feeling that came from placing the items on the pedestals settled over Henry. Still there was nowhere else to go other than through the room so he took a step forward. Just as he did so he felt Bendy move in his pocket and looked down. What he saw was not reassuring at all. Bendy’s eyes were half lidded and fixed on the pentagram. He was also swaying back and forth as if in a trance. The box above his head seemed to be trying to form words but it seemed to distort and flicker like a damaged film reel.

Henry did not hesitate to turn around and get out of that room, but it seemed the universe didn’t like that idea. The boards of the ceiling started to creak then all at once collapsed right in front of Henry, blocking the way completely.

“Ok not going back that way.”

Henry grit his teeth and quickly looked for another way out of the room. He didn’t know what that pentagram on the floor was doing to Bendy but it didn’t seem to be good. Thankfully he spotted a door to the left of the coffins. Two thick boards were nailed across it, but that didn’t deter him. He gripped his ax tight and hacked the boards down with ease.

Once on the other side of the door he looked down to make sure Bendy was alright. Bendy blinked a few times and shook his head. His eyes briefly became swirls before turning back to normal.

“You alright there little buddy?”

Bendy smiled up at Henry and gave a thumbs up.

“Good, let’s stay away from demonic summoning circles from now on.”

Henry continued forward, down another flight of stairs which led to a rather uninviting looking area. An altar of some kind was set up on the wall across from the stairs accompanied by another message in black ink.

The words “He will set us free” was scrawled on the wall with candles and a bowl of something Henry didn’t think he wanted to identify underneath. To the right of the room were more coffins leaned against the wall and candles strewn about.

On the back wall was another shelf with a tape recorder like one Henry had found of Wally upstairs. Going over to it he pressed the play button and then instantly regretted it. That was Sammy’s voice but it did not sound like Sammy at all. Talking about some kind of savor and requiring sacrifice was as out of character a thing for Sammy to do as ever. However, the most disturbing part wasn’t even part of the recording. As soon as Sammy on the recording said “Can I get an amen” as it ended his voice suddenly seemed to come from all around them repeating the phrase.

Bendy jumped at the voice and ducked into Henry’s pocket to hide. He peaked out a moment later and looked to Henry, words appearing on his box.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yeah I did. We should keep moving.”

As Henry walked they came across another altar only instead of creepy writing on the wall there was another ritualistic symbol. Although, this one was different from the one on the floor in the other room and had one of those large cutouts of Bendy from upstairs covering it. Still Henry wasn’t going to take any chances with Bendy and hurried past it.

They then found that the hallway ahead was fully flooded in ink. Well it wasn’t like he wasn’t already covered in ink from what happened upstairs. After testing that the ink only came up to his shins he started trudging forward.

About half way through, Henry noticed a figure walk buy the other end of the hall. Without thinking he called out to it.

“Hello! Excuse me! Can you help us? Hello?”

He got to the other side of the hall and looked around but there was no one, just another symbol on the wall with a Bendy cutout in front of it.

“Where the hell did he go?”

Deciding not to dwell on it too much he turned away from the wall and walked in the other direction. Unfortunately, he didn’t get far. A large mettle gate blocked the path and looked too strong for his ax to break down.

Bendy looked to Henry worried.

“What do we do now?”

Henry looked to the switch with three blinking lights next to it that looked to be attached to the gate.

“We need to get power to this gate. There should be some switches nearby that should open it.”

Backtracking to find the switches wasn’t hard and soon the gate was open. Henry looked around at where they were now. Really, all that just to get to the music department? Just how much had the studio changed since he’d been here? No matter as long as this part was the same he knew there was an exit nearby. He took a right and stopped at the sight of the stairwell flooded with ink. Of course it couldn’t be that easy.

“There’s no way I’m getting that door open with all that ink in the way. If we’re going to get out of here, we’re going to need to find a way to drain it.”

The first place to look was the projector room, but all he found was another recording. This time it was from Norman and thankfully he sounded pretty normal in it. Finding nothing else there he turned back to start searching the rest of the department.

He’d just walked by the sign for the music department when he felt something grab his ankle and he nearly fell over. He turned to see what had made him trip and he took a sharp inhale. A creature made out of ink, looking like a distorted head and torso of a person had a grip on his leg. Henry brought down his ax on the creature and it collapsed back into a puddle of ink.

The victory was short lived as several more of the same creature appeared out of ink puddles and started to converge on Henry. Henry held his ax high and managed to knock down a couple with a few well aimed swings. However, he failed to notice the one come up on his right. It reached out and forcefully pulled him down. At hitting the ground Bendy was flung out of Henry’s pocket and landed a few feet away.

Little stars appeared around the toons head as he got to his feet and looked to Henry. Henry gripped his ax in both hands, ready to bring it down on one of the ink creatures when they all at once stopped attacking him. Instead they all turned to Bendy, who was still slightly dazed. At seeing the creatures coming for him the stars were replaced by an exclamation point and he quickly started running in the other direction. Unfortunately, inch long legs could only go so fast and it wasn’t long until the creatures had him surrounded.

“Not on my watch.”

Henry got to his feet and sliced his ax through the closest creature. He did the same with the others until all of them were nothing more than harmless puddles of ink. Bendy looked up to Henry with an awed expression, only looking away when Henry held out a hand for him. Bendy climbed on and happily returned to Henry’s pocket after being placed there.

The box appeared above Bendy’s head with the words, “You saved me.”

“Corse I did. I couldn’t let those things hurt you.”

“But they weren’t attacking you, you could’ve gotten away.”

“And leave you behind to face those things on your own? Not gonna happen.”

The idea that Bendy thought that Henry could just abandon him like that was worrisome and made Henry all the more determined to get both of them out of this place. Hefting his ax over his shoulder he continued down the next hallway.

During his search for the pump he found more of those recordings, one of Susie and another one of Sammy. Thankfully this time Sammy sounded like his normal self in this one, and he even found out where the pump switch was. He made his way to Sammy’s old office only to find, of course, another mess of ink blocking the door. At least he found another recording from Wally that led him to find keys to the closet next to the office.

There he found another recording from Sammy or at least the person who sounded like Sammy but didn’t act anything like him. This time he was talking about sanctuaries and how to play his favorite song to get into his. If this really was Sammy, Henry really hoped he didn’t find out what happened to make him like this.

“Well this was a waste of time. Now what?”

Little gears appeared above Bendy’s head as they thought of what to do. They needed to get into Sammy’s office but they had no way of doing that. Just then a light bulb appeared above Bendy’s head, which was soon replaced by the text box.

“Hey we’re trying to get into Sammy’s office, right?”

Henry gave Bendy a confused look but nodded. “Right.”

“And this recording is about how Sammy gets into his sanctuary.”

“Yes.”

“So maybe his sanctuary is his office and we got to play the instruments in order to get in.”

Henry thought about it. In a strange way what Bendy said did make sense.

“Well I guess we got nothing to lose.”

They went back to the music room and over to the stage. Bendy reminded Henry which instruments he had to play in which order and Henry played them to the best of his ability. Thankfully it wasn’t anything too complicated. At the last note a light came on over the gate at the far end of the room as it slowly started to lift.

“Well that did something.”

Henry walked over to the room that was previously closed off. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a way to Sammy’s office but it did lead to a valve marked “Flow.”

“Huh this might be what we’re looking for after all.”

He grabbed the valve wheel and started turning until the flow slowed to nothing.

“That should do it.”

Henry turned around and walked back into the music room. As they entered Bendy noticed someone standing in the projector room looking down at them.

“Who’s that?”

Henry didn’t reply as something much more urgent caught his attention. Several more of those ink creatures had appeared and were heading for them. The ax made quick work of them but by the time the room was clear the man in the projector room was gone.

Once back at Sammy’s office they were happy to see that adjusting the flow of ink had cleared the mess in front of the door. Entering the pump switch was spotted easily, with another message scrawled on the wall. “It’s time to believe.” At this point Henry decided to just ignore it, however, something on Sammy’s desk did catch his eye.

“Ink Machine mark 2?”

That didn’t sound good. If the first ink machine did all this he didn’t want to know what a second one could do. Still that was something for the authorities to deal with once they got out of there. Turning back to the door he started back to the stare well that lead to the exit.

He had just entered the main hallway when something hard hit him on the back of his head. Everything went blurry and he tumbled forward, having just enough coherence to land on his side as to not crush Bendy in his pocket. He looked up to see what appeared to be a man with a bendy mask on. The last thing he heard before completely blacking out was Sammy’s voice speaking in that same creepy way from the recordings, then everything went black.


	4. Chapter 2.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this is the last chapter until Chapter 3 of the game comes out.

Henry wasn’t sure how long he was out but the pounding in his head seemed to indicate it wasn’t that long. He blinked a few times trying to get his bearings. The first thing he recognized was the man, Sammy, who’d knocked him out. The second was the ropes tied him to a support beam.

“There we go now. Nice and tight. We wouldn’t want our sheep roaming away now would we?”

Henry wanted to say something but his body still felt like lead so he managed a glare instead.

“No we wouldn’t. I must admit I am honored you came all the way down here to visit me. It almost makes what I’m about to do seem cruel. But the believers must honor their savior. I must have him notice me… hmm what’s this?”

Sammy reached into Henry’s pocket and pulled out Bendy who’d been hiding there.

“Ah yes the little imposter. I remember you. My lord has been looking for you. You will make the perfect offering when the sacrifice is complete.”

Sammy reached into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out an inkwell, much like the one Henry found Bendy in. As soon as Bendy saw it several exclamation points appeared above his head followed by several No!’s on his box.

Henry suddenly felt much more awake and he started to struggle against his bindings. Bendy had been so scared at just the idea of going back into an inkwell. He couldn’t let Sammy do this, but it was no use. The ropes weren’t coming loose and all he could do was watch as Bendy was forced into the inkwell.

“Our lord is calling us, my little sheep. The time of sacrifice is at hand! And then I will finally be free from this… prison. This inky… dark… abyss I call a body.”

A loud bang was heard from the ceiling with louder ones following close behind.

“Shh… Quiet! I can hear him. Crawling above. Crawling! Let us begin. The ritual must be completed! Soon he will hear me… he will set us free.”

Sammy walked away carrying the inkwell with him.

Henry continued to struggle. Sammy’s voice then came through the speakers above him, singing one of the songs he’d composed for one of the original cartoons.

“Hear me Bendy! Arise from the darkness. Arise and claim my offerings!”

The gate in front of him opened and Henry realized just how dire this situation was. He continued to yank, the ropes loosening ever so slightly. Come on, come on!

“Free me! I beg you! I summon you ink demon! Show your face and take this tender sheep!”

Just then a horrible crash came from the other room. There was the sound of glass shattering and an unearthly growl.

“No! My lord! Stay back! I am your prophet!”

Thankfully Henry was distracted by the horrible screams of pain as something squeezed out from behind the door.

“Bendy!”

With one more hard tug the ropes came loose and Henry ran over to Bendy. The small toon didn’t look so good. He was dripping ink so much it was starting to run over his eyes and he could barely stand up. Henry scooped him into his hands and cradled him close.

“It’s ok. I got you. You’re safe.”

Slowly Bendy calmed down and his ink started to solidify.

“Henry?”

“Yeah I’m here buddy.”

Bendy smiled before his eyes suddenly went wide in fear.

“Henry, look out!”

Henry looked behind him and rolled out of the way just in time to dodge one of those ink creatures. He grabbed his ax from where it was leaning against a sort beam and hacked at the creature. He did the same to two more creatures that appeared and things fell silent.

Henry then turned to the now opened hallway. He hoped that it would lead to an exit or at least a part of the studio he recognized. However, just as he was about to head off Bendy looked to him with a concerned face.

“Henry wait.”

“What is it?”

Bendy looked away and played with his hands.

“It’s just everything, those ink monsters, that other giant Bendy, they’re all after me and they don’t care who they hurt to get to me. You should just leave me here. You’ll be safer that way.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no. I’m not leaving you. We have no idea what they’ll do to you.”

“But we know exactly what they’ll do to you. You heard what happened to Sammy. He killed him, Henry! That other me ripped him apart, I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Henry shuttered at hearing what happened to Sammy but stood his ground.

“I said we were getting out of here and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Both of us.”

“But…”

“No buts. I don’t know why you don’t understand that I care about you but I do and I don’t want you hurt by those things any more than you want it for me. Now you are coming with me and that’s final.”

Bendy seemed to want to argue the point more but also realize he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Henry. The comment about caring about him also appeared to have silenced him for a bit.

Taking this as Bendy agreeing to stay with him, Henry placed him back in his pocket and continued down the hallway. He used the ax to clear more fallen boards away, looking around to see if there was any kind of exit he could find. Eventually they came to a room flooded with ink, with a door on the far wall. Not even hesitating Henry jumped in and started wading through the liquid.

Just then the ink in front of him started to bubble and he had only a second of warning before the monstrous Bendy shot up from the ground. Henry had no time to react as an inky hand grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. The other hand came up looking ready to rip into him only to halt when he felt movement in his pocket. He looked down to see the small Bendy climbing out and giving the monster Bendy a determined look.

“Leave him alone. I’m the one you want right?”

The other Bendy didn’t answer but its eyes remained fixed on the smaller version of itself.

“Then come get me!”

Bendy jumped out of Henry’s pocket and started falling towards the ink. Henry felt gravity take over as the monstrous Bendy immediately dropped him and lunged for the smaller Bendy.

Henry managed to catch himself as he fell and turned to the monster going after his friend. The monster Bendy had managed to grab the smaller one in its hands and was now looking down at it with its manic smile. At least it looked like it was looking at the smaller Bendy; it was kind of hard to tell with the ink running down its face. Still that wasn’t important, he needed to get his friend away from that thing before it did anything to him.

Hurling the ax above his head he brought it down on the monster with all his might, burying it deep into its back. The monster let out an inhuman shriek and dropped the smaller Bendy in its shock. Without pausing to think Henry dove forward and grabbed bendy as he fell. He then bolted out of the room and down a different hall.

They could still hear the monster Bendy right behind them and Henry kept running. Luckily there weren’t any fallen boards to slow them down; Henry had left his ax in the flooded room anyway. Finally they got to a door that mercifully wasn’t locked and Henry burst through faster than a man in his fifties should ever move. He then slammed the door behind them, which dislodged a loos board that fell over the door, jamming it shut. The sounds of the monster banging on the door and growling angrily echoed around them but they seemed to be safe for the moment.

Henry slid down the wall taking in gulps of breath as he rested his legs. That had been way too much physical exertion for someone his age.

He looked down at Bendy, who he still had clutched in his hands. The poor toon was literally scared stiff. Henry brushed his thumb over him a few times until Bendy started to relax.

“Henry?”

“Yeah I got you.”

“What… what happened?”

“I got you away from that thing. We’re safe now.”

Bendy gave a small hesitant nod, before his eyes went wide in realization.

“It was after me again and he… you… he almost killed…”

“Hey, look I’m ok. You’re ok. We’re both ok and got away from that monster. Everything’s ok now.”

“I told you that you should have left me behind.”

“And I told you that wasn’t going to happen. Come on we got to keep moving.”

Henry placed Bendy back in his pocket and stood up with only mild protest from his legs. He turned around seeing there was only on path for them to go. He had just taken a step forward when a can of bacon soup rolled out from behind a wall.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!”

Footsteps came closer and Henry tensed, all too aware he no longer had his ax to defend himself. A figure appeared from behind the wall and Henry’s eyes widened in shock.

“Boris?”


	5. Chapter 3.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this chapter has been sitting on my computer for months now and I'm never going to do anything more with it so I should probably post it. Sorry for the wait guys.

Henry cracked his eyes open and was once again greeted by the ink stained ceiling of the studio. He sighed and rolled out of the hammock Boris had set up for him. He didn’t want to seem ungrateful; Boris had done a lot to keep him safe and helped him recover from everything he’d been through since entering the studio, but that didn’t change the fact that he was still trapped here. All of them were still trapped there.

After rubbing the sleep from his eyes he looked to the shelf build into the wall and gave a small smile at what he saw. They had found a few plush dolls of the characters around the studio and arranged them like a small bed on the shelf for Bendy. Currently said toon was curled up on the plushies and hugging the Alice Angel one tight.

Henry wondered if there was a living version of Alice like there was with Boris and if there was how Bendy would react. It had taken a while for him to accept Boris wasn’t like the other ink creatures they had encountered and he wondered if it would be the same if they met Alice or if he’d be more open to idea that maybe not everything in this studio wanted them dead. Or whatever they wanted Bendy for.

Well they would never know if all they did was stay held up in this safe house for the rest of eternity. Henry had said he’d get them out of here and he meant it. He reached out and nudged Bendy’s small frame to wake him. Bendy opened an eye and the string of Zs over his head vanished.

“Hey little buddy, I’ve decided we pack up and start trying to find a way out of here again. I mean if you want, not going force you to come with me if you feel safe here.”

Both of Bendy’s eyes shot open at that and he reached out to Henry. “No no! Wait! I mean, yeah I’ll come with you. It’s just are you sure that’s the best idea? I mean we’re safe and no one can hurt you here.”

“It’s only safe as long as nobody else finds it or until the bacon soup runs out and I’m not waiting around until one of those happens. I said I was going to get us out of here and I am, but I’m not going to force you to face more danger with me if you’d rather stay here.”

The black box above Bendy’s head was blank for a long moment. “Maybe… maybe it would be best of you did leave me here. All the monsters are after me after all. Maybe not being with you will make them leave you alone. Also Boris said, or mimed, he’d come with you so you won’t be all on your own.”

It was obvious what Bendy was trying to do and Henry sighed. How did someone based off a demon become so self-sacrificing? “Bendy we talked about this. I’m not leaving you behind unless you feel safe here without me here. So what is it, you want to stay here or not?”

“I… I want to st…” Bendy locked eyes with Henry and looked away. “No I want to come with you. I’d be scared here all alone, even if it’s bigger and not as dark, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the smart thing and leave me here.”

That was it as soon as Bendy alluded that staying here alone would be like being in the inkwell any thoughts of leaving him here were banished from Henry’s mind. He promptly scooped the small toon up and placed him in his pocket.

“Doesn’t mean I’m not going to do the right thing. Now come on Boris is probably waiting for us.”

Henry ignored the protests flashing across the box over Bendy’s head and turned and exited the room. 

Of course Boris wasn’t going to let them leave without eating first and Henry quickly went to work heating up some bacon soup for the three of them. Once he did so Boris gave him the handle to the lever that would open the door and all three of them stepped out into the studio. The door swung shut behind them and latched, no turning back now.

They walked through the halls a bit before coming to part of the studio that had lost its lighting. Luckily there was an old flash light lying on the desk, which Henry picked up and turned on. 

This hallway was even more eerie than the rest of the studio. Old machinery clanked and pulsed through the walls and fresh ink oozed from the ceiling. An odd sound then echoed from somewhere either above or ahead of them and they froze.

“Did you hear that?”

Bendy shook his head furiously and Boris remained quiet as ever.  
“Yeah. Me either.”

He aimed the light down the hall but saw nothing but more machinery and ink so kept moving. Eventually they got to a door that didn’t open for them. Henry tried to pull them apart but it was no use.

“Another dead end.” He looked around but there wasn’t much else to see. “I don’t see any other way through. Got any ideas?”

Bendy shrugged but Boris walked over to a grate and pulled it up. He then crawled through the small gap, letting the grate fall down behind him. There where clicking and other sounds of someone working on machinery through the walls before the doors started to slide back.

On the other side was a rather unexpected sight. A massive room lay before them, with parallel gates lined up in the middle, leading to an inky waterfall with a sign that read 

“Heavenly Toys.” If he didn’t know any better Henry would have said it looked like the entrance to an amusement park. What was a room like this doing under an animation studio?

“Wow, I don’t remember any of this.”

He looked around as he walked through the room, noticing the giant plush versions of Bendy and Boris. Behind the waterfall (inkfall?) he found a set of stares which he ascended, ignoring the feeling of unease as he did so.

At the top of the stares was a leaver with attached cables leading down the hallway. He followed the cables to a mechanism in the wall that appeared to be jammed. He ignored it for the moment and looked around. He saw a door at the other end of the room but it was blocked with several shelves of stuffed toys. 

“Why is there always something blocking the door? Got to be a way to get through.”

He turned back to the mechanism and noticed bits of plush where stuck between the wheels and belts. After cleaning it out he went back to the leaver and since of course pulling levers in this place always seemed to be a good idea he pulled it down. Instantly he heard the mechanism whir to life and he went back to see that the shelves had moved. 

On the other side looked to be another one of those alter things with another recording. This one was of Shawn talking about how the Alice Angel merchandise wasn’t selling. Nothing too important. Although the floating ink in the shape of Bendy was rather unnerving.

He walked down to the door and opened it to reveal what looked to be some kind of shrine to Alice Angel. Posters of her cartoons covered any part of the wall wooden cutouts didn’t occupy. At the end of the room was a glassed off stage with a banner over it which read “She’s Quite A Gal!” 

Once Henry stepped foot in the room all the lights shut off at once. A flickering spot light then shined on the stage and the TV screens on either side crackled to life with the 

image of Alice’s face. Music started to play and a faint whispery singing filtered through the speakers. There was a very strong feeling that something very bad was about to happen.

Henry took another step towards the stage and instantly leaped back when a deformed and mutilated version of Alice Angel appeared behind the glass. She screamed and pounded the window. Then the lights went out just as the sound of shattering glass filled the room. 

“I see you there. A new fly in my endless web. Come along now. Let’s see if you’re worthy to walk with angels.”

The lights came back on and all that could be seen of Alice’s presence was the large hole in the window. A section of the wall also appeared to have moved revealing another hallway. 

It took a moment for Henry’s heart rate to slow to where it didn’t feel like it was going to fly out of his chest and looked down to see if Bendy was ok.  
Bendy stared vacantly at the stage and broken glass. The box above his head flickered a few times before words formed.

“That wasn’t Alice, that can’t have been Alice. She was always happy and friendly in the cartoons. Well not when I was around since she wasn’t supposed to like me but she wasn’t… like that.”

“I know buddy, whatever’s going on in this place has done something pretty bad to her. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.”  
They looked to the new hallway then at each other. With no other direction to go Henry started walking.


	6. Chapter 3.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got this done. Sorry it took so long guys but your comments and kudos really helped me get this thing out. Didn't know if I wanted Alice to take both Boris and little Bendy or just Boris so I left it kind of ambiguous. I'll decide once chapter 4 comes out.

The hallway was just as twisted and winding as the others in the building, and eventually led to a fork with a sign pointing to each direction. One sign read “The Angel” and the other read “The Demon.”

“Well if the angel path leads to Alice I’d rather not see her again.”

Bendy nodded and they turned down the path labeled demon. Henry only took a few steps down the hall to find a room completely flooded with ink. Nothing they hadn’t seen before in this place but it still gave off an eerie feeling. Henry cautiously took a few more steps into the room, ink sloshing around his ankles and sighed in relief when nothing happened.

Across the room was another recording and Henry went over to it. When the sound of Joey’s voice came from the speakers he almost fell back into the ink. He hadn’t been expecting that. Apparently neither had Bendy as the toon completely froze up at the voice.

At first nothing about the recording seemed too strange, nothing out of the ordinary for Joey to say. Although the line about using belief to cheat death made a chill go down Henry’s back. Had all of this been the result of Joey actually attempting become immortal?

He decided to get out of that room as quick as possible and turned to the rooms exit.

The next hallway thankfully wasn’t flooded, even if it was a bit claustrophobic, but Henry could deal. As he walked he passed by a strange closet sized box with a halo painted on it but he didn’t pay it much mind.

He turned a corner and almost screamed at seeing something large looming over him. He then realized who it was and let out a relieved sigh.

“Boris! You scared me to death.”

With everything that had happened with Alice he’d almost forgot they had gotten separated from the cartoon wolf.

“Don’t suppose you found anything to protect ourselves with?”  
Boris held out a pair of pipes bolted together and Henry took it. It wasn’t an ax but it was heavy enough to do some damage to anything that tried to attack them.

“This will do.”

Boris then motioned for Henry to follow him so he did, until they got to a large door that required two levers to be pulled at once.

“Alright.” He turned to Boris. “You get this one, Bendy and I will find the other.”

Henry followed the wires to a dead end with a poster of The Bucher Gang on it and looked to see if he could find the lever. Only once he came close to the poster a deformed, monstrous version of one of the characters burst out and grabbed for him. Henry gripped the pipe in his hands and quickly bludgeoned the thing into an inky smear.

After regaining his breath he turned back to the switch.

“Ok Boris. Now!”

Both the levers were pulled and the door opened to reveal a balcony that over looked a rather large, open room. Boris walked down to what looked to be an old elevator and Henry followed. Once they stepped into the elevator a very unwanted voice came from overhead.

“You’re so interesting… so different.”

Henry shuttered at the sound of Alice’s voice.

“I have to say, I’m an instant fan. Looks like you’ve got a date with an angel! Come to me now. Level nine. Just follow the screams.”

The elevator started to move down and eventually stopped at a floor that looked just as run down and ink filled as the rest of the studio.

“Come on, step out of your cage. There’s a whole twisted world out here.”

Henry gripped the pipe in his hand tighter and slowly stepped out of the elevator. He could feel Bendy trembling in his pocket but didn’t dare acknowledge him and risk the possibility of alerting Alice of his presence. It was possible that she hadn’t seen him when she first showed herself since she only addressed Henry when she spoke earlier but she seemed to be able to see them now and he’d do anything to give Bendy even the slightest bit more safety.

Boris seemed to know where to go from here so Henry followed like before. They ended up in front of two large doors with a sign that looked like Alice holding a banner reading “She’s quite a gal!” over them.

The doors opened with a horrible creaking sound and Boris dashed through. Henry ran after, not wanting to be left behind only to stop dead in his tracts at what awaited him at the end of the hall.

Boris stood in front of another version of himself strapped to an autopsy table with his chest ripped open, much like the one Henry found on the ground floor. Upon farther inspection though it was clear that this wasn’t the only Boris corps in the room and in fact there were several all in the same condition and there were even some other toons as well.

Henry grabbed his breast pocket to prevent Bendy from peeking out and seeing this horrifying display while trying to make it look like he was holding his chest in shock. That wasn’t too hard to fake; the sight was quite gruesome, so gripping his chest wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary. It was probably best to get out of there as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, the only way out was a path way of boards bridging a massive pit of ink that snaked in a path, bringing him even closer to the mutilated toon cadavers.

“Look around. It took so many of them to make me so beautiful. Anything less than perfect was left behind. I had to do it. She made me.”

The path ended at another pair of metal doors that opened almost on command when he stepped off the wood planks. On the other side was an almost as horrifying sight as the room full of dead Borises. Another human sized 3D toon was strapped to some horrible machine and appeared to be in excruciating agony as Alice stood behind the controls.

Alice looked to Henry, her malformed lips stretching into a creepy approximation of a smile.

“Now we come to the question…Do I kill you? Do I tear you apart to my heart’s delight? The choices of the beautiful are unbearable. How’s a girl to choose?” She turned to the now motionless toon on the machine. “Take this little freak for instance! He crawled here… trailing his tainted ink to my door! It could have touched me! It could have pulled me back! Do you know what it’s like? Living in the dark puddles? It’s a buzzing, screaming well of voices! Bits of your mind, swimming… like… fish in a bowl! First time I was born from its inky womb, I was a wiggling, pussing, shapeless slug. The second time… well… It made me an angel!”

Henry resisted the urge to cover his ears at the broken, fluctuations in Alice’s voice. It was almost like two different voices were speaking over each other and the words were constantly switching from one voice to the other.

“I will not let the demon touch me again. I’m so close now, so… almost perfect.” She turned back to Henry. “Yes, I will spare you. For now. Better yet… I’ll even let you ascend and leave this place. If you do a few eensey weensy favors for me first.”

Henry didn’t feel he had much of a choice in helping Alice with what she wanted, so nodded.

“Return to the lift my little errand boy. We have work to do!”

Large metal doors came down separating Henry from Alice and the horrible sounds of the machine she’d been using on the toon started up again. Henry just turned and booked it out of there as fast as he could, the agonized screams still filling his ears.

However, before he got back to the elevator a board fell across the gates leading back to the large open room and Alice’s voice came from the speakers again.

She gave him instruction on what she wanted him to do and he walked back to get the plunger. He had to drop the pipe in order to carry the thing which made him feel much less protected, but she let him go back to the lift once he had it.

“Please don’t make me regret sparing you. I can always change my mind.”

He thought that might be it from her but as soon as he reached the stairs up to the elevator she spoke once more.

“There are so few rules to our world now. So little truths. But there is one rule we all know and respect down here. Beware the Ink Demon. Stay out in the open for too long and he will find you. For if you see him you’d better hide. If you don’t, well I enjoyed our date.”

Henry shuttered and stepped onto the elevator, where Boris was waiting.

Bendy popped his head out from Henry’s pocket for the first time since Alice started talking through the walls and looked up to Henry.

“Do you really think she’ll let us leave if you help her?”

Henry sighed and wiped his hand across his face.

“I don’t know but I don’t think I have much of a choice. She did say she’d kill me if I didn’t do what she wanted. Anyway I think you should stay hidden in my pocket for now. If she’s anything like the other ink monsters we’ve encountered she might want you for something and after seeing what she does to other toons I’m not going to risk her knowing about you.”

Bendy nodded and went back to hiding in Henry’s pocket as Henry turned to Boris.

“Boris, you stay here and get ready to get us out of here in case something goes wrong.”

Boris nodded and gave a solute and Henry went to carry out Alice’s demands.

Getting what Alice wanted was easy enough, aside from fighting off ink monsters and deformed toons and hiding from the deformed Bendy monster, and despite their tediousness Henry was able to get the majority of the demands done within the hour. Although, the task of collecting hearts, was a bit more than he really wanted to test his sanity. It didn’t help how much it was suggested that the projectionist creature was actually Norman. Boris didn’t seem too thrilled with being down in that area either.

Henry deposited the hearts as fast as possible not wanting to hold onto them a moment longer and nearly collapsed in joy when Alice said that was the last task. He’d started to believe the list of tasks was never ending.

“Return to the lift. It’s time to go home.”

Henry did not have to be told twice and hoofed it all the way back to the elevator. Once inside the elevator started to ascend and Bendy peeked out of Henry’s pocket.

“Are we really getting out of here? For real?”

“It looks that way but I’d still keep my guard up.”

Alice chuckled from over the speakers.

“Have you ever wondered what Heaven is like? I like to dream that it’s quite beautiful. A soft valley of green grass, blanketed by a warm sun. I don’t think I’ll ever get to see it. Are you ready to ascend my little errand boy? The heavens are waiting.”

Henry grit his teeth these words didn’t feel as reassuring as they sounded. He was proven right when Alice started to laugh in a less than sane way. The elevator car then suddenly started plummet as Alice screeched over the loud speakers.

“Did you really think I’d let you steal from me?! Did you really think I’d just let you go?! No Henry, I know who you are! And I know why you’re here! I also know what you’ve been hiding from me. That little toy in your pocket everyone is after. It was bad enough you tried to take my perfect Boris from me, but to try and take something so precious is unforgiveable. Now get back down here and bring them to me. Or better yet, I’ll take them! Once you’re DEAD!”

The elevator hit the bottom and Henry was knocked dazed. The next thing he saw was Boris shaking him awake. Boris smiled only for his eyes to go wide in alarm at something behind Henry. Henry turned around and immediately wished he hadn’t. Alice Angel stepped out from a hallway and glared down at him.

“Still alive? Not for long.”

Henry was suddenly pinned under Alice’s heal as she bent down to reach into his pocket. He tried to fight back but his vision was swimming and his head felt like it was splitting open. Just then Boris leaped from the ground and knocked Alice away. There was a brief tussle but It was clear Alice had the upper hand. The last thing Henry saw before blacking out completely was Boris being dragged down a dark hall.


	7. Chapter 4.1

Henry awoke to the feeling of two small hands pushing at his face. He slowly opened his eyes to see Bendy worriedly looking into one of them. Bendy’s worried frown morphed into a relieved smile and he moved back to Henry’s pocket to allow him to sit up.

Once Henry got his parings he looked down to Bendy who already had his box flashing words too fast for him to read.

“Whoa slow down there, I can’t read that fast.”

The words stopped and Bendy took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

“I’m glad you’re alright Henry you wouldn’t wake up for a long time.”

“Yeah I’m find buddy don’t worry.” Henry then got a serious look and turned to the hallway Alice had dragged Boris. “But I’m afraid Boris might not be unless we find him soon.”

Bendy nodded. “He sacrificed himself to save me; we got to get him back.”

“We will, don’t worry.”

Henry clenched his fists in determination and started running down the hall.

The hall quickly branched into two ways one leading to a door without a handle and the other to Grant’s office. Henry opened the door to the office and tensed at the sight. Of all the rooms they had found in this place this was one of the more unsettling ones. The same writing around the studio were all over the walls but the messages were scribbled over each other so much most were illegible and those that could be read were the disconnected bits about money and numbers.

A bubbling puddle of ink dripped from the desk next to an audio recording that when Henry pressed play he instantly wished he hadn’t. It was just as unintelligible as the scrawling on the walls but whoever was on the tape sounded in pain as things smashed around them until things went quiet for a moment. Then the grown of a searcher was heard. Henry’s stomach roiled and he took a step back from the tape.

As he did so he felt his foot land on something other than the floor and looked down. It was the missing handle to the door. He picked it up and took another glance around the creepy room.

“What do you say we get out of here?”

Bendy nodded franticly and Henry made a hasty retreat from the office.

The handle was thankfully easy enough to reattach and it swung open to reveal a sight that made Grant’s office look like a safe hideaway. Ink covered figures were positioned around a Bendy statue on some kind of stage. The figures were in positions that looked like they were suffering and reaching out to the statue for help.

Bendy sunk deeper into Henry’s pocket. “Those aren’t people, are they?”

“I really hope not. Let’s just keep moving.”

The next room wasn’t so bad, looking to be a library or study of some sort. Moving around the curved shelves he made his way to the center of the circular room. In the middle was a table with another recording on it. Henry hesitated, he didn’t really want a repeat of what he’d heard in the last recording.

He exchanged a look at Bendy and they nodded. These recordings were their only clues to what had happened to these people and any information was desperately needed now. Henry pushed the play button and they listened to Susie’s next step into madness. The recording ended and they were left without a next step forward.

“So now what.”

Gears appeared above Beny’s head again then a lightbulb appeared above his head. “I think I might know. During some of the uh… later days before he left me, Joey talked a lot about books being straight on shelves kind of the same way Sammy talked about the instruments letting him into his sanctuary on that recording in the music department. I haven’t seen any books on shelves in this place until now so maybe he was talking about this place.”

Henry shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

They looked around and found a couple books out of place. Once they were pushed in a light above the closed door turned on for each of them.  
“Well that seemed to work.”

They looked around and found a third one and Henry pushed it in. However, once he did he tensed and looked around in fear.  
“Henry what’s wrong?”

Henry blinked then looked to Bendy.

“The lights got all weird and the safes started banging, didn’t you see that?”

Bendy frowned and shook his head. Henry frowned in confusion then looked around. He spotted the next book on the far wall and gulped. He went over to it and slowly pushed it in with his eyes closed. He then opened an eye and relaxed, apparently nothing happened.

While looking for the last book they passed the door to the room with the Bendy statue and Bendy tugged on Henry’s shirt to get his attention. Henry looked down so he could read what Bendy was saying.

“Um Henry… the ink people are gone.”

“What?”

Henry looked into the room and sure enough the ink covered figures were gone.

“Okay that’s not good let’s get out of here before they decide to come back.”

They found the last book easily enough and the door opened to a large cavernous room with wooden platforms protruding precariously over a nearly endless abyss. Cages hung from chains and dangled over the edge, giving the whole area an even more ominous feeling.

Henry made his way up the platforms, sticking as close to the wall as possible, until they came to a broken gondola like device.

“Looks like we’ll need to find a way to fix this thing before we can get across.” He looked over the device and noticed the problem was a gear was missing. “Doesn’t look to hard just need to find a gear.”

They glanced around the area looking for anything that could be used as a gear. Bendy then pointed to an odd device against the wall.

“Why don’t you see if that thing has a gear we can use.”

“Worth a shot.”

Henry went over to the device and looked it over. As far as he could tell it looked to be some kind of exchange station. Something would go in at the top and after turning the crank whatever was on the diel would come out. After switching through some of the options on the diel he found that a gear was one of the items that could be received.

“Huh convenient, now to find out what we need to exchange for the gear.”

He looked to Bendy to see if he had any ideas.

Bendy gave a shrug. “I don’t know, ink maybe?”

“Seems too easy but can’t hurt to try.”

Henry gathered some ink from a pipe draining into the chasm in his hands and brought it to the device. He dumped it in and turned the crank but all that came out was an inky sludge pile that was only vaguely shaped like a gear.

Bendy slumped. “Well that didn’t work.”

“No but I think we’re in the right direction. Just need something more solid than just plain ink.”

Through some further exploring and some trial and error it was eventually discovered that a glop of thick ink from a searcher that emerged from a vat of ink was what was needed. Not the strangest thing Henry had to do in this place.

Once the gear was attached and the lever pulled the gondola came over to the side they were on. Henry carefully stepped inside as the boards creaked underneath him. Thankfully everything held and they weren’t plunged into the darkness below. There was a rather terrifying moment where the pulleys suddenly stopped halfway across but they eventually started up again.

After getting to the other side Henry wasted no time in getting out.

“Alright, let’s not test our luck with that thing again.”

Bendy nodded in agreement.

Henry walked to the door leading away from the cavern and opened it. On the other side was a dark narrow hallway with the plaster peeling away from the walls. Henry took one step inside and suddenly jumped back in utter terror. He stood stock still as he stared horrified at the hallway. However, once Henry blinked he relaxed and took a few deep breaths.

Bendy frowned up at Henry.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“You didn’t see the hands?”

“What hands?”

“The hands. They were coming out of the walls.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

Henry was quite for a moment then brought a hand to his forehead. “I think this place is starting to get to me. Once we find Boris we’re getting out of here any way we can.”

Bendy nodded and they hurried down the hallway. The hallway ended in another cavernous room, although this one was smaller and just had moving chains instead of hanging cages. Henry didn’t stick around to really look at it much and started climbing the stairs to get out. Of course at the end of the hallway was when Alice decided to start talking.

“I see you there, my little errand boy. Your angel is always watching. What is it that keeps you going?”

Henry ignored her and started heading up the stairs.

“Is it the thrill of the hunt? The thirst for your freedom?”

Henry continued climbing.

“Or perhaps… You’re just looking for a little friendly, wolf…”

Henry faltered and Alice laughed.

“Better hurry errand boy. Boris is having some trouble staying in one piece.”

Henry glared up at where the voice was coming from.

“You keep your slimy hands off him you witch!”

Alice chuckled. “Oh looks like I struck a nerve there. You sure seem to like this Boris, don’t you? Well then, while I hate to let such a perfect specimen go perhaps we can make a trade.”

Henry narrowed his eyes as his hand grabbed protectively at the pocket holding Bendy.

“Yes very good. You learn so quickly. Now hurry up little errand boy. It’s rude to keep a lady waiting.”

Henry didn’t respond and just continued up the stairs until they got to a door that entered into a rather nice looking room with couches and tile floor. It even had a balcony looking over it, with something moving on it!

Henry looked to the ink covered figure fearfully glancing around with glowing gold eyes. It didn’t appear to have seen them and just talked about someone fining him and wanting to go home. Henry could sympathies with that. It then continued walking across the balcony and out of sight without acknowledging that anyone else was in the room.

Once he was sure the guy was gone Henry went for the door under the balcony and opened it. He then immediately shut it. The other side was full of the same inky beings with glowing eyes.

“Well that’s not an option.”

Bendy peaked out from his pocket and looked around. “But that’s the only way we can go.”

“Bendy that room is full of ink people and in case you hadn’t noticed I don’t have a weapon.”

Bendy stared at the door. “I don’t think they’re going to hurt us.”

“What?”

“I think they’re just scared and sad. If you don’t do anything to them we’ll be okay.”

Henry looked to the doorknob and took ahold of it. “You better be right about this.”

He opened the door and stepped inside. The ink people only stared at him as he entered but did nothing else. It looked like Bendy was right.

Just then every single ink person’s gaze shifted to focus on Henry’s chest and their eyes went wide. It was hard to tell if they were in aw or fear since they’re ink covered faces didn’t give much expression. Still it was clear what they were looking at and Henry protectively placed a hand over his pocket. Yet none made any move aside from their almost rhythmic swaying.

He made his way across the room, careful to avoid touching any of the ink people, and their gazes remained fixed on him, or more specifically on Bendy. At the other end of the room was an open vent with a flashlight sitting inside.

“Good thing I’m not claustrophobic.”

Henry took the flashlight and after turning it on crawled into the vents. The sound of squelching footsteps were heard back in the other room and he turned back to see several of the ink people had crowded around the vent entrance, still staring with their glowing eyes.

“Please tell me they’re not going to follow us.”

It was hard to make out Bendy’s box in the darkness of the vents but he was still able to read it. “I don’t think so. They don’t seem to want to leave that room.”

“They don’t seem to want to do much of anything.” A hint of sadness was heard in his voice but he turned back to the vent in front of him. “Just as long as they don’t follow us, they seem safe where they are for now.”

He slowly started making his way down the duct until he came up to another vent grate. He was about to push it out when out of nowhere the other Bendy appeared and started pouring ink down the grate. Henry jerked back as far as he could in the enclosed space, and held his breath as he stared eye to ink with the monster. Thankfully, the other Bendy didn’t appear to be able to reach them through the grate and eventually walked off.

“Okay not going that way.”

Henry made a turn and hurried down the vent, hoping to be long gone before that Bendy came back.

Eventually the vents led them to an exit where the great was also missing and Henry climbed out into a rather spacious room. He placed the flashlight down and made his way over to stairs across from the vent.

Bendy pointed to the words scrawled on the wall nearby reading “Come up and see me” and looked to Henry.

“Who do you think is at the top of these stares.”

“I don’t know but my guess is another ink creature. Really wish I still had an axe. Hopefully my fists will do.”

At the top of the stairs there wasn’t actually anyone to greet but there was another tape recorder on a table, next to a model of some kind. This time, when the cassette played, Henry showed no recognition of the voice. It was from some amusement park designer who appeared to be very cross with Joey for calling him by a childish nickname. Rather mild after the tapes before.

“How long you want to bet until we run into the monster this guy turned into?”

Bendy glared at Henry. “That’s not funny.”

“Yeah you’re right, just really didn’t want to think too hard about fighting another ink monster. We still have Alice to deal with.”

Bendy nodded and looked away. “So you’re actually going to fight her to get Boris back?”

“What other choice to I have?”

The box appeared above Bendy’s head but Henry put up his hand to stop him.

“No, I know what you’re going to say and that is not an option.”

“But…”

“No, I am not trading you for Boris. I promised I’d get both of you out of here, not just one, and that’s what’s going to happen.”

Bendy looked to Henry for a long moment before nodding

Henry relaxed and looked around to see if there was any clue on how to move forward. A switch was found on the wall next to the table and He pulled it. The sound of a door opening up was heard below them and Henry went back down the stairs to see a metal door open to a pitch black room.

With a sigh he brushed his ink covered hair back and stepped forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided to keep Bendy with Henry, mostly because he's really the only thing that preventing me from just writing what happens in the game with no changes. Also because I liked this idea with Alice offering an exchange ;).


	8. Chapter 4.2

Once Henry took a step through the door lights automatically came on to illuminate a large cave like room full of what appeared to be the starts of a carnival. Above him was a sign that had once read “Bendy Land” but Land was written over in ink with the word Hell.

“Ok now they’re just trying to hammer it in a little too hard.”

Bendy looked around at the room and shrunk back into Henry’s pocket. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this place.”

“Yeah but it’s not like we have much choice, if we want to save Boris.”

He made his way down the steps and farther into the fair ground. It was like a twisted maze with all the stacks of unfinished attractions and equipment. As he was walking he didn’t notice the wires on the floor until he nearly tripped over one. Looking at were the wires went he found that they lead to multiple closed doors and a board of switches at the back of the room. 

“Looks like this big switch goes to the haunted house ride and the smaller ones go to the doors. Now we just need to find a way to activate it.”

With a bit more wandering around they eventually found another recording left by Wally. Henry wondered if the old handy man actually did get “outta here” before all the horrors started happening.

The recording was of course more complaining but it did tell them how to open the doors which was almost too convenient. Still Henry didn’t have time to ponder this and picked up the balls to start the bottle toss game. It turned out that Henry had a pretty good aim and throwing arm and it wasn’t long until all the bottles were on the ground. The target game was trickier since it was far too easy to hit the wrong target but eventually Henry got the hang of it and he hit enough of the correct targets to get the door to open.

On the other side of the door was a small walkway that ended with a switch on the wall. To the left were three melting figures of Bendy, with far too wide smiles, all fused into the wall. Henry watched these figures carefully as he pulled the switch but nothing happened so he exited the walkway with no hassle.

Apparently pulling the switches lit up one of the switches on the panel in the back. That switch then opened another door across the room.

This door lead to a balcony that looked over a room with more of those messed up butcher gang members huddled around a burning barrel.

“Looks like we got some company this time.”

“How are we going to get past them if you don’t have a weapon?”

Henry frowned and thought until he moved his hand and accidently knocked an empty bacon soup can off the railing. It landed next to the butcher gang and the all turned and shambled over to it. They then stayed huddled around it for a few minutes before going back to the fire.

A light bulb appeared above Bendy’s head just as a smile broke over Henry’s face.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

Henry gathered up as many empty cans he could find and quickly made his way down the stairs to the level the butcher gang members were on. He then tossed a can as far away as he could and watched as the zombie like cartoons went to investigate. 

When he was sure they were fully distracted he bolted to the hallway on the left. Down that hallway was another crying ink person who appeared to be trapped in a caged off area. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that they could do for it and continued on. At the end was what looked to be a work station of some kind along with a recording and another switch.

The recording was from a mechanic named Lance and just seemed to be paranoid musings about the Bendy animatronic in the corner. Henry just pulled the lever and left. 

The cans were used to distract the butcher gang while getting to the other hallway and back to the stairs again and Henry exited the room without a scratch. 

The next switch was flipped and Henry went through the newly opened door to find a shutdown spinning cart ride. Scattered around it were more items one of them being a desk with another recording on it. However, when Henry pressed play the voice of Bertrum didn’t come from the speakers of the tape player. Instead it seemed to come from somewhere else in the room.

Both Henry and Bendy looked around to try and find where the voice was coming from until their eyes landed on the ride. A door opened to reveal a large disfigured face of what must have been Bertrum. The ride then came to life and the arms started spinning the carts in rapid circles. 

Henry had just enough time to jump backwards as one of the ride’s arms came down and shattered the desk into splinters. When the cart was removed Henry’s eye caught the glint of a familiar shape. He quickly reached down and grabbed the axe before turning to the possessed ride before him. 

Thankfully the ride seemed to have rusted in its time of unused and the axe easily took care of the joints in the arms. He was just about to take care of the last arm when the ride jerked and the cart slammed into him. He was sent sprawling on the ground and Bendy had to grip tightly to shirt fabric to stop himself from flying out of the pocket.

Once Bendy found he was no longer in danger of being airborne he turned to Henry who was lying on the ground unmoving. Exclamation points appeared above his head and he scrambled to Henry’s face.

Thankfully just as he got there Henry groaned and opened his eyes. Bendy relaxed only to see the cart coming for them again and the exclamation points were back. This time however Henry rolled out of the way in time and got back on his feet. He then swung his axe at the last joint and the arm fell limply to the ground.

Without the arms the ride became unbalanced and started to spin so fast smoke came out of it. Then with the ear splitting sound of metal grinding against metal the whole ride came to a stop and the after appearing to gulp for air the face of Bertrum was covered once again.

Henry dropped the axe and fell to his knees as he caught his breath. Bendy looked to him in worry but he patted the toon reassuringly and got back to his feet. He hit the switch and made his way out of the room and back to the panel. The third switch was pulled and the last door opened. 

Henry went to the door to see the words Choo Choo Choo scribbled on the far wall the same way the other messages were. Bendy looked to the wall then to Henry worriedly.

“Henry wait, I got a bad feeling about this. Maybe we shouldn’t go this way.”

“We have too. It’s the only way to get to Boris.”

Bendy frowned but didn’t argue, only sank back down into the pocket.

As Henry walked down the hall he came to a room with one of those Little Miracle Stations across from a stairway. He started to make his way down the stairs until a very recognizable flickering light appeared at the bottom. Henry froze as they watched the Projectionist amble along in the flood of ink.

Once the Projectionist had passed Henry started to make his way back down.

“What are you doing? The only reason you survived that guy last time was because you could hide from him in that maze of back hallways. You have no idea if there’s a place to hide down there!”

“It’s a risk I’m going to have to take. We only have one more switch and it’s down there. Besides if nothing else I can hide in that closet thing up there. If it worked with other Bendy it should work with this guy as well.”

Henry got to the bottom of the stairs and started to make his way in the opposite direction of the Projectionist. He found a switch on the wall but it wasn’t like the others. Still he pulled it which unfortunately seemed to be the wrong course of action as a horrible screech echoed thought the room and the light of the Projectionist started getting closer.  
Henry bolted but the foot of ink around his ankles slowed him down considerably. He only just managed to get to the stairs and hurl himself into the Little Miracle Station before the Projectionist caught up with him. Thankfully it seemed that he was right about the station keeping him safe as the Projectionist quickly lost interest.

After waiting a few more seconds Henry made his way out of the station and back down the stairs. As he did this Bendy gave him a “You’re seriously going back?!” look.

“That switch wasn’t the one to the panel, we need to find it.”

Bendy gave an exacerbated look before slumping over in defeated over the lip of the pocket.

It didn’t take long for Henry to find another stairway in the room. He was about to go up it when he noticed a tape recorder on a barrel against the wall. He glanced back to the room to see the Projectionist on the other side then pressed the play button. 

At hearing another one of Joey’s upbeat overly cheery mantras about believing in yourself he rolled his eyes and turned to go up the stairs. Then the recording took a very sharp tonal change. Henry faced the recording again with mixed expression and stared at it for a while until it ended. He continued to stare for a few more minutes until he was snapped out of his trance by the screech of the Projectionist.

Henry turned to see that the Projectionist had not only spotted them but was heading for them so fast there was no way to get past him and to the safety of the Little Miracle Station. With nowhere else to go, he bolted up the stairs behind him. Unfortunately it seemed the Projectionist was just as fast on the wood floors as he was in the ink and Henry was only marginally faster.

As he was running he noticed another switch, one that looked like the others for the panel. He made a beeline for it and nearly slammed into the wall in his haste to get to it. Once there he yanked the switch down and got ready to run again when suddenly all the lights shut off, including the one from the Projectionist.

Henry took several deep breaths as he looked around the dark room. There was absolutely no sign of the Projectionist, although it was hard to tell with no lights, but not even the sound of the reels being spun broke the silence. He looked down to consult with Bendy but he soon realized that was impossible to do if he couldn’t see.

Slowly he stepped away from the switch and made his way back down the stairs. His feet made a loud splash that shattered the near deafening quiet around them, yet still nothing happened. 

Henry moved forward with nothing but the sound of the ink sloshing around his angles to break the silence. However, once he got to the stairs leading out of the ink filled room a bright flickering light appeared behind him and the same screech from before echoed around them. Without looking back Henry booked it as fast as he could up the stairs and practically flung himself into the Little Miracle Station.

Neither he nor Bendy dared to move as they watched the Projectionist creep closer through the little slit in the door. The Projectionist seemed to study the door for a moment before reaching out as if to open it.

Henry’s breathe catches but he couldn’t look away from the monster coming for the only hiding spot he had. Then out of nowhere the monstrous Bendy appears next to the Projectionist and slugs it in the projector acting as its head. The two ink monsters wrestled and fought for a few moments until the monster Bendy grabbed a hold of the  
Projectionist’s head and with a vicious yank severed it from the body.

The projector was then flung at the door of the Little Miracle Station causing Henry and Bendy to involuntarily jump before the monster Bendy picked up the limp body of the former Projectionist and walked off.

Once the ink on the walls stopped swirling, indicating that the Bendy monster was gone, Henry finally let the breath he’d been holding out and reached for the door. He paused before opening it and he turned his attention to Bendy.

“That really happened right? That wasn’t just another hallucination?”

Bendy shook his head, eyes still darting to the door. “No, I saw it too.”

Henry nodded and opened the door. He took a quick glance at the severed projector head and smear of ink leading into the wall, confirming the events they’d witnessed were real, and exited back to the main carnival room.

As Henry walked to towards the switch panel, Bendy stared off in the distanced with a thoughtful look on his face. Just as they were passing by the haunted house Bendy got a determined look and tugged on Henry’s shirt to get his attention.

Henry stopped walking and looked down to his pocket. “What is it?”

“Could you set me down? I want to check something.”

“Sure.”

Henry pulled Bendy out of his pocket and sat him down on the ground. Bendy then went over to the Haunted House ride and looked over the doors. There was a small gap between the doors and the floor that if he ducked he would be able to get under. He turned to Henry with a guilty look just as he seemed to understand what Bendy was doing.

“Sorry Henry but it’s too dangerous for you here. Get Boris out safe, ok?”

Henry didn’t even bother reading the box and quickly went to grab Bendy before he had the chance to go through with his plan, but it was too late. By the time he reached the door all his hand caught was air.

“Bendy!” He slammed his fist on the doors. “Bendy, don’t do this! I told you we were all getting out together!”

He banged on the doors a few more times but Bendy didn’t come back. He then got to his feet and ran to the switch panel. He yanked the last switch down and dashed as fast as he could back to the Haunted House entrance. 

With a relieved smile at seeing the doors open he did not waste any time running through them. He then paused to see if he could see which way Bendy went. Noting the clear path left by Alice in the forward direction of the ride to direct Bendy to her location, Henry jumped on the tracks and started to run. However before he could get far he was hit from behind by one of the ride’s cars and fell backwards into it. He only managed to right himself when the car’s safety bar came down, trapping him in the seat.

“Sorry Henry, but the little one made up his mind. I can’t have you stopping him, but don’t worry you’ll get there just in time to say your final goodbye.”

Alice’s sickly sweet voice made Henry cringe as he shoved against the safety bar but it stayed firmly in place. There was no getting out. He would have to stay in the car as it moved at the agonizingly slow pace.

At long last the car entered a round room that looked to be a mention’s study with creepily shifting portraits on the walls. Henry payed no attention to the rooms decorations as his eyes were fixed to the small cartoon demon standing in the middle of the floor with what looked like a bird cage attached to the ceiling with a retractable chain.

“Bendy!”

Bendy turned at Henry’s voice and frowned in worry.

“Henry, I told you to get Boris and leave.”

“And I told you we’re not leaving without you.”

Alice’s voice came on again, this time addressing Bendy. “Don’t worry he’ll be reunited with Boris and to able leave once you step into the cage.”

“Bendy don’t listen to her. We’ll find Boris together and all get out of here.”

Bendy only gave Henry a sad smile and stepped into the cage. “Make sure to make Boris happy when you get out.”

With that the cage shot up far out of Henry’s reach, sending Bendy falling over as the cage door fell closed and latched behind him.

“Bendy!”

Henry once again tried to free himself from the ride but just as last time the safety bar was locked into place. The car turned and started to head towards the doors leading out of the room and it was clear he wouldn’t get out before the car left the room. However, just as the car was entering the darkness of the next room Henry’s focus was drawn away from Bendy as two massive gloved hands grabbed ahold of the car’s front. 

Henry’s eyes widened in utter horror as the horribly disfigured from of Boris came into view.

“Boris!! No, no… what has she done to you?”

Boris didn’t answer and began to push the car backwards into the previous room. The cage holding Bendy shook as soon as he saw what had happened to Boris as well. Several text boxes appeared above his head, presumably about this not being part of the deal he’d made with her, but Henry couldn’t see.

Alice laughed as Boris gave the car Henry was in another shove and sent it and Henry flying across the room into the far wall. At least this finally got the safety bar to release and he quickly got out and turned to face the Frankenstein monstrosity that had once been a lovable cartoon wolf.

“Meet the new and improved Boris! I took what I wanted, and in return, I gave him so much more. And this time there’s, no Ink Demon, no escape. Boris tear him apart! Leave nothing.” 

As if on cue Boris charged for Henry and he only just escaped being crushed in time. He then started to franticly look for something to defend himself. His eyes landed on another exchange device from the gondola, but he would need the special ink to make it work.  
The solution to his problem quite literally hit him in the face after dodging another one of Boris’ attacks. Ink spewed from the cavity in his chest along with a large glop of the needed ink. 

After wiping if from his face Henry collected it in his hands and darted for the machine. He flipped though the diel to see if there was anything that could help him. At seeing one option was a bone Henry took no hesitation to yank the lever and waited for the bone to come out.  
Unfortunately, the bone appeared to be the wrong choice as even swinging it around towards Boris’ face didn’t sway him from his kill mission. Thankfully Henry was successful in obtaining another glop of the special ink and this time selected a pipe. 

“Sorry Boris, I don’t want to do this but it’s the only option.”

He ran up to Boris and slammed the pipe into Boris’ chest cavity and sent the monster reeling back. It only took a few hits like that for the fight to be over and for Boris to collapse before melting into a pool of ink.

“No!!! No! No! No! Why can’t you ever just die?!”

Henry looked up just in time to see Alice running towards him with murderous intent. He braced himself for another fight when just as she was about to reach him a sword suddenly protruded from her chest. She looked down in shock as the blade receded and she collapsed on the ground, unmoving.

Henry’s eyes moved from the dead Alice on the ground to another much less warped Alice standing in front of him with a sword and next to her was another Boris swinging a pipe into a mechanized hand.


End file.
